Power amplifiers are typically used to amplify signals for wireless transmission. For example, remote radio heads (RRHs) use power amplifiers to amplify analog signals which are transmitted to implement WiMAX and other wireless networks.
Signal distortion caused by the power amplifiers is often compensated for using predistortion. Predistortion involves distorting initial signals before supplying them to the amplifier such that the distortion of the power amplifier will null the predistortion, where the predistortion may be approximately an inverse of the distortion of the power amplifier. In this manner, amplified signals can be generated with signal characteristics similar to the initial signal. The predistortion is typically performed in the digital domain before digital-to-analog conversion is used to generate the analog signals supplied to the power amplifier for amplification.
Conventional solutions utilize samples of the initial signals and amplified signals for performing digital predistortion. The samples are collected in blocks of consecutive samples without considering the magnitude of the samples. The blocks of samples are then used to determine the distortion applied to the initial signals.
Although conventional solutions are capable of reducing the effect of the power amplifier distortion by applying predistortion to the initial signals, the amount of samples utilized by conventional solutions is relatively large. Processing of the samples to determine the predistortion is computationally complex, resource-hungry and time consuming. Accordingly, conventional solutions which utilize a relatively large number of samples to perform digital predistortion demand a relatively large amount of resources. Furthermore, the time required for performing such digital predistortion is relatively large, thereby causing conventional solutions which utilize a relatively large number of samples to be slow and inefficient.